Lufthansa suffers worldwide IT failure causing massive flight disruption

15 February 2023 , 10:31

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Lufthansa has had to delay and cancel flights (Image: AFP via Getty Images)

Thousands of people have been caught up in a huge IT failure at one of the world's biggest airlines.

Lufthansa is experiencing a widespread cancellation of scheduled flights due to issues with its computer systems.

The German national carrier has said that “there is a groupwide IT system failure” and that it would last until the early evening.

The IT problems were caused by damage to fibre-optic cables belonging to a telecommunications service provider which were damaged during construction work on tracks in Frankfurt.

This caused an outage of Lufthansa's IT systems at the airport in Frankfurt.

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Lufthansa has asked affected passengers to check the status of their flight on the company's app or website before arriving at the airport.

Passengers with domestic flights can switch to Deutsche Bahn until Sunday.

Have you been impacted by the cancellations or delays? Email [email protected]

The issues have been caused by an IT outage (POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

“Currently, the airlines of the Lufthansa Group are affected by an IT outage," Lufthansa said on social media.

"This is causing flight delays and cancellations. We regret the inconvenience this is causing our passengers.”

Videos shared on social media show passenger queues and disruption and airline terminals as a result of the outage.

Bloomberg has reported that all flights have been affected, by Lufthansa has said that those planes in the air at the time of the outage were continuing.

Unconfirmed reports suggest passengers will be boarded onto planes, but they will not depart until the IT system is back up and running.

It is unclear exactly how many flights have been cancelled and delayed, although Lufthansa generally operates close to 900 flights a day.

The IT system failure comes two days before planned strikes at seven German airports which will likely cause major disruption.

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Yesterday evening Scandinavian airline SAS was hit by a cyber attack, prompting the company to urge customers against using its app for a short period.

Lufthansa's most popular routes connecting to the UK are London to Geneva, London to Zurich and London to Amsterdam.

Listed under the airline’s cutest flight information it states: “Due to an IT failure many Lufthansa IT systems are currently not working.

“Because of this reason passengers must expect disruptions in the flights program and during the check-in process.

“Further information will be published as soon as possible.”

It added: “In case your flight is cancelled we recommend not to proceed to the airport and rebook your flight on Chatbot.”

More to follow.

Milo Boyd